Variance in Quality

Crastin · 12-01-2007, 10:29 PM

I played Assassins Creed from Ubisoft and I can't put that game down, it's just amazing. Then, recently I picked up Beowulv from Ubisoft as well and it's a complete piece of trash. What gives? I know Beowulv is based off the movie and it probably had more constraints etc but i'd like to understand exactly what is different in the design process of different titles from the same company and why they turn out so completely different.

yaustar · 12-02-2007, 06:44 AM

Same company, (possibly different location), different internal teams, different developers = different designs, processes and quality.

Thumper_34 · 12-02-2007, 07:50 AM

plus different budgets and themes. Alot of movie games are lacking due to the release dates.

Gshonk · 12-02-2007, 10:20 AM

And different schedules and freedoms with the IP.

Crastin · 12-02-2007, 01:14 PM

I already suspected all those things, I guess i'm asking specifically why is it that these movie based games aren't given as much freedom and consideration to be created? I can't fathom why releasing garbage would boost sales and if they'd just spend a minimal amount more of time on the games they could actually be worth buying.

Gshonk · 12-02-2007, 09:21 PM

[quote=Crastin;2066]if they'd just spend a minimal amount more of time /QUOTE]
They don't have one iota "more of time". There is a deadline they must hit if the game is ready or not. It's all politics and bigwig corporate crap. They are very restricted on content.

yaustar · 12-03-2007, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crastin

I already suspected all those things, I guess i'm asking specifically why is it that these movie based games aren't given as much freedom and consideration to be created? I can't fathom why releasing garbage would boost sales and if they'd just spend a minimal amount more of time on the games they could actually be worth buying.

As said by Gshonk, time is a huge factor. They only have one time window where they can maximise sales. If they miss it then they miss out on hype and publicity generated by the movie and therefore sales. Who wants to buy a game of a movie that was released months ago that many people would have probably forgotten.

In terms of freedom, there are many legal and political hoops that developers have to jump through to make sure that the game meets with all parties involved requirements. If the license holders don't like a particular part of the game, be it art, audio, levels, features, they have the right to refuse for it to be there or require it to be changed and the developers have to comply.

jillduffy · 12-04-2007, 09:28 AM

Jez Harris actually spoke a little bit about the difficulties of working with a license in his talk at the Game Career Fair in London in October.

http://gamecareerguide.com/features/...eo_games__.php

He worked on many of the Harry Potter games released by EA. I think during the talk, he suggested that there are multiple parties who have to sign off on the content, and it was his job as a "designer" to try and ensure that all the parties would indeed give the go-ahead.

Harris also talked about working on Catwoman the game and how it was bascially depressing because he knew going in there was no way to make a good game out of what he was being given.

As much as time and corporate sign-off are factors, you also have to consider that there are developers being asked to work on these licenses and titles, and maybe not all of the developers on the team believe in the project.

Question for you future game designers: if your first job was to work on a licensed title that you thought poorly of, would you do it just to get into the industry? How would you feel if your first game credit was for something that you _knew_ was going to be crappy? What would you do about that?

Crastin · 12-05-2007, 06:26 PM

......Probably. I hate to say that because i'd like to think that I don't settle for anything but the best of my abilities but in realistic terms sacrifices have to be made to get into a position to create what I love.

I guess in general when handed a steaming pile of movieremake video game that i'd just have to work much harder to get the team interested and doing A+ work. Also, I seriously don't think releasing shitty video games helps promote a movie more than a late video game.

Gshonk · 12-05-2007, 09:45 PM

Thats probably why your not an exec.

Thats not how they see it.